I couldn't say it any better folks.
Cal
phillipscalvin(a)prodigy.net
----------
Date: Friday, May 15, 1998 11:53:31
From: Brian Leverich
To: listowners-L(a)rootsweb.com
Subject: Re: Virus alert -- how do I verify report?
-- Your message was: (from "Brian Leverich")
> RootsWeb lists should never (that's NEVER) be used for making
> general, nongenealogical announcements. We'll choke the servers and
> break things for everyone if we aren't careful about this.
------------------
BTW, it occurs to me that it might not be obvious to everybody why
these things can break servers. Here's the reason:
Virus alerts and their ilk tend to "ring" the servers: they appear
on one or a few lists, get rebroadcast on more lists by more people,
... , fanning out sort of like a chart of our descendants. I've
seen one of these posts generate as many as 500 copies posted to
other lists within an hour or so.
On top of our normal load, this can be *really* hard on the servers.
So you *really* don't want to ever post any of these things that can
jump from list to list, unless you intentionally want to bring down
the servers ... -B
--
Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L
RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative
http://www.rootsweb.com/
P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 leverich(a)rootsweb.com